Constructing collective identity among mobile populations: the emergence of medieval rural communes in central Italy

I propose to examine the economic and social conditions of rural settlements in central Italy to understand why and how
rural communes emerged amid wider jurisdictional and signorial power. Strong papal sovereignty across modern Lazio,
Umbria and the Marche in the twelfth and thirteenth century connected a patchwork of lordships, cities and bishoprics
with varying allegiances. Among this mix of jurisdictions, there is increasing evidence for dispersed, nucleated and
newly created rural communities that demonstrate collective legal identity and institutions resembling those of city
communes. These institutions may be seen as the solidification of existing co-dependent relationships, which
nonetheless represent a significant change in small-scale collective identity. Through a comparative survey of rural
settlements in central Italy, this project will attempt to determine the social and economic conditions that contributed to
partial autonomy in smaller settlements. This will explore the transition of social practice into collective institutional form
and illuminate the conceptual and physical world of central Italy's rural communes. Recent scholarship has explored the
under-documented impact of migratory practice in medieval society which alongside the continuing attraction of growing
cities suggests a society in which many people, while often economically tied to the land, were regularly on the move. I
intend to explore the extent to which developing local institutions were affected by regional migration and the impact of
elite and tenant mobility. This work will address broader questions about social cohesion and the malleability of
small-scale collective identities amongst fluid populations.